This was my big chance! Once in the Bone Palace, I immediately had the Artifact transform my skin into solid bone and create large weapons out of my hands. The transformation was remarkably easy. Startling the Collector, he ran down the hallway trying to get away from me.

As I faced the guards, I realized a major problem. I wasn’t a fighter. I had never been in a fight in my life and I had no idea what to do. At most, I could look scary but that wouldn’t be enough for the guards. Well, I was a living weapon so that should be enough to defeat them. They are only guards, after all.

I just had to get past the guards and get the door open. It should be easy enough to do that. The others on the other side of the door were counting on me to open the door and Kira and Jakob needed help. The elementals locked in the cells were counting on me.

My father always told me that, no matter what, the most important part of anything that I do was to really try. I could fail a thousand times but that isn’t true failure. True failure would be to never try at all.